2GB Graphics Needed?

[mac.copy]

You can split your RAM between your virtual machine and Mac OSX. Why and how would you be planning to split your VRAM? That just does not make any sense.

Really? Because I can set the value of my VRAM on my MacBookPro 13" (Mid 2010) for every VM in the VM-Configuration (Parallels 6: Hardware -> Configuration -> Graphic). So I assumed, I can do the same with the iMac. Or can I just split my VRAM on my MacBookPro because it is shared RAM?

 

[loves2travel]

So what I've been reading, 1GB should be fine for video editing like FCPX/FCP as well as daily computing needs and 2GB is for intense gaming and multiple displays?

This is going to be our first iMac and my on the fence on getting the 1GB or 2GB.

 

[theSeb]

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I believe that you're wrong and I will happily await to be proven wrong with actual facts.

I believe that this is the more correct version of your statement:

VRAM is relevant for driving monitors and VRAM is useful for graphics rendering and gaming.

What do you think the GPU is doing when driving one or two monitors? Taking a drive in the country? No, it's rendering graphics.

LOL...

I was running Eyefinity with 3 monitors @ 1920x1200 each with a Radeon 5870 1GB over a year ago. Even THEN, it was irrelevant in a 3D environment.

Why do some of you insist on talking about things you know nothing about?

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-ram-4870,2428.html

It would appear that you didn't read the link. None of that is earth shattering and makes perfect sense in line with what I said. For rendering your desktop 2 GB is enough for 5760 x 1080.

Since the price difference is substantial, a graphics card with 2GB of RAM is probably overkill for anyone who has a monitor with a native resolution lower than 1920x1200.

Would you say that the £80 difference is substantial?

 

[theSeb]

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You can split your RAM between your virtual machine and Mac OSX. Why and how would you be planning to split your VRAM? That just does not make any sense.

Really? Because I can set the value of my VRAM on my MacBookPro 13" (Mid 2010) for every VM in the VM-Configuration (Parallels 6: Hardware -> Configuration -> Graphic). So I assumed, I can do the same with the iMac. Or can I just split my VRAM on my MacBookPro because it is shared RAM?

I don't use parallels and prefer vm fusion but I have not seen that option and it still makes no sense to me.

 

[yustas]

Great, thanks everyone for the replies. It sounds like 1 GB of VRAM is more than enough to run Parallels.

 

[talmy]

Hellhammer--

Is this Windows or OS X? My understanding is that the scheduler in OS X is smart enough to assign to physical cores before the virtual cores of Hyperthreading. However with Windows, at least it used to be, not the case.

Image

I haven't really seen any games taking advantage of more than four cores. While the difference between the CPUs in gaming seem to be negligible in newer tests, there isn't much point in getting the i7 if there are no other CPU intensive tasks involved.

 

[VTMac]

Really? Because I can set the value of my VRAM on my MacBookPro 13" (Mid 2010) for every VM in the VM-Configuration (Parallels 6: Hardware -> Configuration -> Graphic). So I assumed, I can do the same with the iMac. Or can I just split my VRAM on my MacBookPro because it is shared RAM?

It's not doing what you think. It is not possible to "partition" any hardware device other than a CPU with Parallels or Fusion. When you set "VRAM" in Parallels you setting that amount of VRAM that the Parallels Virtual Machine is going to tell Windows it's has. In reality that "VRAM" is backed by standard RAM. So the virtual machine writes to ram, which Parallels then writes to the OSX drivers which then writes it to VRAM (if necessary).

This is the essence of why graphics performance on all VMs sucks compared with native performance.

 

[Hellhammer]

Hellhammer--

Is this Windows or OS X? My understanding is that the scheduler in OS X is smart enough to assign to physical cores before the virtual cores of Hyperthreading. However with Windows, at least it used to be, not the case.

That is in Windows and in the end, Windows is a must for serious gaming (not that many titles for OS X). If you look at i7-2600(K) and i5-2500(K), you will see that the difference is much smaller nowadays so might be that Intel and/or MS have done something to fix the HT issue.

 

[talmy]

That is in Windows and in the end, Windows is a must for serious gaming (not that many titles for OS X). If you look at i7-2600(K) and i5-2500(K), you will see that the difference is much smaller nowadays so might be that Intel and/or MS have done something to fix the HT issue.

Then I'd say that for non-serious gamers or serious non-gamers there is no reason to avoid HT in OS X.

Incidentally, a fair number of years ago I had a dual Xeon Dell workstation, each having a single core, but with hyperthreading. We were running engineering applications under Linux and, indeed, found that having hyperthreading off sped things up. But I have found that the hyperthreading in my i7 iMac is an advantage for those times when I can use more than 4 cores and I'd say doesn't hurt if I'm using 4 or less.

 

[MythicFrost]

Image

I haven't really seen any games taking advantage of more than four cores. While the difference between the CPUs in gaming seem to be negligible in newer tests, there isn't much point in getting the i7 if there are no other CPU intensive tasks involved.



http://www.hardocp.com/article/2011/02/24/amd_radeon_hd_6950_1gb_performance_review/3

Hmm, I'd like to see a benchmark with SB CPUs. From what I've seen, that doesn't happen with them.

Exactly my dilemma too ..

I´m confused whether to take 2Gb VRAM option or not. Yes it´s ¨only¨ $100 compared to other BTO options

But does 2Gb really help? Yes I´m quite a gamer. I wanna play Battlefield 3 with graphic setting just like on Youtube demo, but on a Mac computer, what a greedy b!tch, am I

Is it possible to reach higher setting in gaming graphic just by increasing the VRAM? Or it just help caching textures so the game run smoother than 1Gb VRAM?

And for Hellhammer .. wow how so an i7 can possibly slower than i5 for some games? Does the hyperthreading decrease performance or what?

It can give you a smoother experience if the 1GB is used.

I am planning on running Parallels as well and would like to confirm that 2 GB VRAM can be split up between Windows and OS X. Is it true?

I have ordered my iMac i7 with 2GB VRAM because I'm going to use Parallels a lot to boot my Bootcamp-Partition. And with 2GB VRAM, I can split my resources equally between Mac OS X and Windows 7/Ubuntu (2 Cores, 8GB RAM, 1GB VRAM for each).

Just a tip, Parallels 6 supports no more than 256MB dedicated VRAM for a single VM.

You can split your RAM between your virtual machine and Mac OSX. Why and how would you be planning to split your VRAM? That just does not make any sense.

VM's need dedicated VRAM to run.

 

[theSeb]

VM's need dedicated VRAM to run.

Serious? I didn't know that.

 

[MythicFrost]

Serious? I didn't know that.

Yep, I've booted Windows 7 64-bit with 2MB of VRAM.

Don't try it.